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Customer focus is real! Growth, learning, and burnout are also real

Senior Software Engineer
Current Employee
Has worked at Amazon for 6 years
December 22, 2021
Seattle, Washington
4.0
RecommendsPositive OutlookNo CEO Opinion
Pros

Tons of opportunities; there will be some good teams doing almost anything you might be interested in!

Moves fast! You'll learn a lot, both technical and business.

The vast and varied businesses are generally well managed; upper management is very competent. Top-notch engineers are plentiful if you're in the pockets of businesses that are heavily tech-driven.

Great internal mobility. You can transfer very easily.

PIP culture is not real (stack ranking is real, though). I've only seen two cases in my seven years here, and both cases were people who were really low performers and given one to two years of coaching/opportunities to improve.

Cons

Doing the right thing for customers/business doesn't always mean the right thing for engineers. There are orgs that seem to operate with the mindset that engineers are expandable resources.

Always have fresh meat to churn through, instead of investing in more sustainable growth.

The quality of teams varies widely. Bad teams will break/burn out even strong, ambitious people. It's very real and sad to see. Find a new team quickly if you land in a team like this.

Not all business segments need top-tier talent, but even the ones that do can't attract the best sometimes.

Advice to Management

Don't be stupid! Pay competitively for the parts of the business that need it.

Promotion pay adjustment is very broken. You're expected to operate at the next level for a year before being promoted, yet you are placed at the bottom of the band after promo, which is frequently less pay than what a top performer at their previous level will be paid. Yep. Congrats on your promo and here's a pay cut.

Additional Ratings

Work/Life Balance
3.0
Culture and Values
4.0
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
4.0
Career Opportunities
5.0
Compensation and Benefits
3.0
Senior Management
4.0

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